• Next up: UNLV at CSU, 5 p.m. Saturday, Hughes Stadium

Jim McElwain and Bobby Hauck both grew up in Montana, the sons of high school teachers, administrators and coaches.

Their families’ paths crossed often over the years. They know each other well and have many close friends on each other’s coaching staffs.

And, with McElwain’s first CSU team preparing to face Hauck’s third UNLV team Saturday at Hughes Stadium, the Colorado State University coach can’t help but wonder if he’ll be any further along in rebuilding the Rams (2-7, 1-4 Mountain West Conference) two years from now than Hauck is in rebuilding the Rebels (2-8, 2-3).

Every program is different, and every coach has his own way of implementing the changes they believe are necessary to get the program moving back in the right direction. But McElwain, 50, and a native of Missoula, Mont., and Hauck, 48, and a native of Big Timber, Mont., — where McElwain’s father, Frank, had his first teaching and coaching job — admit they’ve bounced ideas off each other over the years.

“He and I go way back and have been good friends for many, many years,” Hauck said. “And sometimes, when you’re grinding and trying to make something out of an uphill battle, it’s good to have someone to bang ideas off, and we’ve both had the ability to do that.”

McElwain said he’s taken particular interest in the development this year of the UNLV offense under first-year coordinator Brent Myers, who was McElwain’s college roommate and teammate at Eastern Washington. McElwain was a quarterback, and Myers was his center. The two spent six years coaching together at Eastern Washington from 1985-91.

As he’s watching video this week, McElwain said he can’t help but feel good for his friend when he sees the way the Rebels are beginning to establish the kind of power running game McElwain and Hauck believe is one of the cornerstones to building a winning football program.

The Rebels, who already have a 1,000-yard rusher this year in junior Tim Cornett, are averaging 164.5 rushing yards and 393.5 yards of total offense a game — roughly 50 yards a game more than CSU is averaging in each area.

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But McElwain also knows what Hauck has gone through to get to this point. Hauck — an assistant at the University of Colorado from 1995-98 — went 80-17 in his first seven seasons as a head coach while guiding his alma mater, Montana, to Big Sky Conference titles each year and appearances in the Football Championship Subdivision national championship game three times.

His UNLV teams have yet to win more than two games in a season under his guidance, going 6-29 in his two-plus seasons. UNLV hasn’t had a winning season since 2000, when John Robinson was the coach.

But the Rebels do have the kind of size and speed this year that McElwain hopes to bring to CSU. And the Rebels knocked off Air Force 38-35 on Sept. 22 and routed New Mexico 35-7 Saturday in Las Vegas.

“I know what a great coach Bobby is, and I know what he believes in and his success at Montana is unbelievable as a head ball coach,” McElwain said. “And he did that with toughness; he did that with discipline; he did that with getting the right guys in there. And you know? He’s doing that (at UNLV), and you can tell even from last year’s films, he has dramatically reshaped who they are. He’s playing some guys that they’ve redshirted and now are playing and getting the guys in that he wants.”

It takes time

McElwain is hesitant to put any kind of timetable on his own rebuilding effort. He pointed out Barry Alvarez had Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl in his fourth year on the job but still had a losing season in his sixth year before winning two more Big Ten Conference titles in his ninth and 10th seasons. And Virginia Tech didn’t get to a bowl game until Frank Beamer’s seventh season and didn’t win Big East Conference titles until his ninth and 10th seasons.

CSU has had just one winning season since 2003.

McElwain is running his own program for the first time, but he’s seen what it takes to be successful as an assistant to John L. Smith on Louisville teams that won back-to-back Conference USA titles in 2000 and 2001 and a Michigan State team that played in the Alamo Bowl in 2003 and as the offensive coordinator for Nick Saban on national championship teams at Alabama in 2009 and again last season.

He has complete faith the process he’s leading the Rams through eventually will produce teams that compete for bowl berths, conference championships and Top 25 rankings. He’s already seen significant improvement in a number of areas, including the way his players conduct themselves in the classroom and in the community, in how they relate to one another and their coaches and in the way they practice.

“The lack of wins, it’s hard to swallow,” McElwain said. “And yet ... I see a lot of great things here, because it’s such a great university and all of those reasons that are there. I see a bright, bright future.”